Best of this week in our opinion pages: From Mark Carney’s climate bet and Tory sleaze scandals to protecting abuse victims in virtual courts
On Friday, City A.M. columnist Josh Williams’ turned to Mark Carney’s efforts to build a consortium of investors keen to save the planet from climate change. But his claim to have $130tn at the ready was over-exaggerated and distracted from his mission. Instead, the former Governor of the Bank of England should take a leaf out the activist investor Engine No 1, who, with only $250m, managed to change Exxon Mobil’s mind on renewables.
While size is important, it isn’t everything. If you know how to use it, you can do a lot with a little.
Josh Williams
While Dominic Raab attempted to tackle massive backlogs in the courts this week, family lawyer Victoria Teymourian-Yates pointed out the particularly traumatic impact delays are having on victims of domestic abuse. For every day they are forced to wait for court-ordered protection, victims are more at risk. The prevalence of virtual appearances and rushed proceedings are also preventing a sense of closure critical to our justice system.
If justice is built on finding resolution, it is failing to hit the mark.
Victoria Teymourian-Yates
MPs second jobs have caused a storm in Parliament for over a week now. Our own Sascha O’Sullivan argued that in order to really understand their brief, Cabinet ministers should have to do a shift every month in a relevant posting. So Nadhim Zahawi could try out being a teacher’s aide; Michael Gove could spend a day – really working, not just walking around – a building site in his levelling up quarters, and Grant Shapps could see how it feels to be a train driver.
The things which are so obvious to the people doing the jobs are often missed by those turning the wheels at the top.
Sascha O’Sullivan
On Tuesday, Daniel Sleat outlined plans to deal with the long-term woes in the NHS. Proposals to relocate GPs to poorer areas of the country are a solution to a short-term problem. In the meantime, Sajid Javid was forced to admit the Government would miss its target to bring in 6,000 new GPs by 2024. To adequately revive health service, there needs to be an integrated plan to work with the private sector and turn to innovation and technology solutions for bureaucratic delays.
There is an understandable desire to improve access to healthcare across the country, but it can only be done by embracing technology and reshaping the NHS for a new era.
Daniel Sleat
The US and China struck an agreement at Cop26 that took many by surprise after a year of frosty foreign relations between two of the world’s largest emitters. But Julia Pamilih says China’s rhetoric will mean little unless they dial down their addiction to coal. President Xi Jinping is facing a domestic landscape fraught with power outages and the tradition has been to ramp up coal usage in times of trouble. The deal opens a door previously wedged shut – but only a inch.
When regime stability is under threat, it has become a tradition to turn to coal
Julia Pamilih